Existence of God

Existence of God

According to the Qur’an, of the myriads of the creation of Allah Almighty in the universe, only human beings are endowed with intellectual faculties and freedom of choice, though within limits.

Human beings acquire knowledge by the use of the five senses as well as through the mental processes of abstraction and categorization.

According to the Qur’an, of the myriads of the creation of Allah Almighty in the universe, only human beings are endowed with intellectual faculties and freedom of choice, though within limits. It is only humans who have the ability as well as the freedom to critically observe and logically analyze the objects and events around them and make inferences about the forces working behind them.

From the very beginning, the mind of man was restless and agitated about a mysterious but ineluctable Presence behind the pattern and regularity visible in the whole universe. Man sought answers to the existential questions that continuously arose in his mind, even by spending days and nights in meditation. And finally Allah Almighty revealed to him a fraction of His Infinite Light: The Creator made aspects of Himself known to His favored creation. And Allah Almighty says in His Qur’an what means:

“Behold! In the creation of the heavens and the earth; in the alternation of the night and the day; in the sailing of the ships through the ocean for the profit of humankind; in the rain which Allah sends down from the skies, and the life which He gives therewith to an earth that is dead; in the beasts of all kinds that He scatters through the earth; in the change of the winds, and the clouds which they trail like their slaves between the sky and the earth;- Here indeed are signs for a people who are wise.” (Al-Baqarah 2:164)

The foregoing, incidentally, is the “Argument from Design” as it appears in the Qur’an. It states that a person who makes an objective study of the workings of the natural world will definitely be struck by the “Signs” that emphasize the orderly design of the universe; which will eventually lead him or her to the Reality of the Grand Designer behind it all.

In Islam, there is no conflict between faith and reason; and both are in the service of the Muslim Intellect subservient to Allah Almighty.

Allah says in the Qur’an what means:

“Are, then, they who are bent on denying the truth not aware that the heavens and the earth were [once] one single entity, which We then parted asunder?” (Anbiya 21:30)

We know today that one of the most widely accepted models for the universe’s development is the Big Bang theory. According to this, highly dense cosmic matter rapidly expanded to form the galaxies of the universe. And again Allah (SWT) in the Qur’an says what means:

“And it is We who have built the universe with [Our creative] power; and, verily, it is We who are steadily expanding it.” (Adh-Dhariyat 51:47)

It is indeed inexplicable how the Qur’an that was presented to the world by an unlettered Arab fourteen centuries ago, could contain this profound scientific truth. What then, could have been the source of this knowledge except God Almighty?

And Allah (SWT) says in the Qur’an what means:

“Soon will We show them our Signs in the (furthest) regions (of the earth), and in their own souls, until it becomes manifest to them that this is the Truth. Is it not enough that thy Lord doth witness all things?” (Fussilat 41:53)